Case of another Jacksonville teen with long prison sentence in spotlight

The Associated Press

Tuesday

May 29, 2012 at 6:19 PM

TALLAHASSEE | A three-judge appellate panel on Tuesday asked the Florida Supreme Court to decide the constitutionality of a 70-year prison sentence for a teenager convicted of attempted first-degree murder in Jacksonville.

The 1st District Court of Appeal panel certified the issue to the justices as a question of great public importance.

Meanwhile, the state is appealing a decision by another 1st District panel that reversed a Pensacola inmate's 80-year sentence for a pair of armed robberies committed when he was 17.

They are among several cases arising from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year, also in a Jacksonville case, that sentencing juveniles to life in prison for non-homicide crimes is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. The high court ruling came in the case of Terrance Graham, who was initially sentenced to life in prison. The sentence was then reduced to 25 years in prison.

That ruling had national implications but mostly affected Florida, which has about 220 cases - more than 70 percent of the national total.

The federal justices said states must give such inmates a meaningful opportunity to seek release based on maturity and rehabilitation. They didn't preclude the possibility that a juvenile might spend a lifetime behind bars but said states cannot make that judgment at the onset.

The state is appealing a 1st District ruling in April that reversed Antonio Demetrius Floyd's 80-year sentence. A three-judge appellate panel ruled a sentence that long is the functional equivalent of life in prison. Floyd originally received a life sentence but it was reduced after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Tuesday's certification came in the case of Shimeek Grindine, who was 14 when he shot a man during a 2009 robbery attempt in Jacksonville.

The appellate court previously affirmed Grindine's sentence in December on a 2-1 vote. The dissenting judge, James R. Wolf, wrote that he was at a loss on how to apply the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the case of Graham, also from Jacksonville, because the Legislature abolished parole in Florida.

"Is a 60-year sentence lawful, but a 70-year sentence not?" Wolf asked. "Regardless, it is clear to me that appellant will spend most of his life in prison. This result would appear to violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the Graham decision."

The Legislature this year considered but did not pass bills that would have addressed the issue. They would have let a judge reduce a sentence of 10 or more years for non-homicide crimes committed as a juvenile once an inmate was at least 25 years old.

Although the appellate panel in Grindine's case approved his request to certify the question to the state justices, it rejected his motion for a rehearing.

A separate 1st District panel also affirmed a 50-year sentence for another Jacksonville juvenile, Daryl D. Thomas, on the same day that Grindine's sentence was upheld in December.

Thomas, who was 17 at the time of his crimes, was convicted of armed robbery and aggravated battery for robbing and shooting Alphonso Fly as he was playing dice. They struggled, the gun went off and the bullet paralyzed Fly from the waist down. Thomas originally received a life sentence but it was reduced as a result of the Graham decision.

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